Author: Rick Mc

The IGI Chicago Style Invite goes this weekend, Feb. 12-14th. Good luck to the _____ gymnasts competing.

How many girls are entered this year? … 4000? … 5000?

One highlight will be the NCAA College competition tonight.

Nebraska Heads to IGI Chicago Style Invite with Denver, Illinois and Iowa

Jim Holt related to this article in Sports Illustrated:

Ah, the old system, where perfection was a (10) — remember? …

The prime purpose of the new and unimproved scoring system was to better quantify the various elements in a program — required jumps and spins— so that the famously nefarious judges would have less latitude to cheat.

Alas, this created a scoring system so arcane that, by comparison, it makes computing the Standard and Poor’s index child’s play. Moreover, by emphasizing compulsory obligations, the new system diminished the emphasis on artistry. …

Frank Deford in Sports Illustrated – … Go figure

Bottom line: Frank argues that the scoring system has “destroyed the popularity” an Olympic Sport.

Sound familiar?

Frank is talking about Figure Skating.

… making the rounds at the Vancouver Winter Games this week, with appearances on behalf of McDonald’s and the milk industry …

Shawn Johnson has transformed into pop celebrity

Love the upside down Shawn.

The first ever Youth Olympic Games (YOG) will be held in Singapore between 14 and 26 August 2010. That’s 3,600 athletes between 14 and 18 years of age from 205 National Olympic Committees.

Only 1 male and 1 female athlete will compete for each country in individual disciplines.

All 26 sports on the London 2012 Olympic Games programme will be hosted.

official website

Today Nanjing, China was elected to host the second YOG in 2014.

We can be certain that Nanjing event will be massive, China still high on the success of the Beijing Games.

Obviously critics will be vocal that this new event will push young athletes too soon. It flies in the face of Bruno Grandi’s efforts to raise the minimum age of gymnasts competing at World’s and Olympic Championships.

Personally, I’m really looking forward to YOG. If successful, Olympic sports will get a media boost every two years, rather than every four.

UCLA’s Allison Taylor says she’s the only girl on the team who can do this drill.

Click PLAY or watch it on Gymnastike.

http://www.gymnastike.org/assets/portal/add_ons/mediaplayer-4.2/player.swf

A couple of wannabes give it a try here, including Anne from Gymnastike, herself.

Do you know someone who can do it in series, like Allison?

Join Gymnastike (free) and upload the video to the site. They might be profiled on the Home Page.

Game on.

I just signed up with Team USA News. Like every organization, the American Olympic Committees is trying to get hip with the social media. Cozying up to bloggers, previously scorned. The world is changing.

Actually, anyone can sign up for this offer. If you are an Olympics Junkie, try it.

Sign up now to receive exclusive access information, previously available only to the U.S. Olympic delegation.

You will receive the following insider information during the Games and beyond:

• Daily Report (via e-mail) of the latest sports performances and athletes to look out for in the coming days during the Games

• Mobile text alerts, including updated medal tallies during Vancouver 2010 and invitations to the USOC retail store located at the USA House in Vancouver

• The latest on Team USA hopefuls as they strive for Vancouver, London and beyond.

details – Team USA News

If the last thing you need is more email, or text messages, instead follow the news on Facebook or Twitter.

Meet organizer extraordinaire, Dave Adlard, emailed this year’s list of celebrity Olympians attending the 2010 edition of the Great West Gym Fest in Couer d’Alene, Idaho Feb 19-22nd.

Raj Bhavsar
Courtney Kupets
Mohini Bhardwaj
Misy Marlowe
Stoyan Deltchev
Zdravko Stoianov
Linda Metheny-Mulvihill
Joyce Tanac-Schroeder
Ilian Alexandrov
Rick McCharles

OK, that last guy is a pretender. He only watches the Olympics on TV.

http://cdn.pis.picapp.com/IamProd/PicAppPIS/JavaScript/PisV4.js

http://cdn.pis.picapp.com/IamProd/PicAppPIS/JavaScript/PisV4.js

If you are not joining us this year, jot down the dates for the 10th anniversary: Feb 25-28, 2011. Dave promises that will be the best ever. The early bird deadline is April 1, 2010. Email funnflip AT msn.com for details.

Great West Gym Fest

… The Olympic torch relay took a daring turn Wednesday evening as two torchbearers tram-surfed with the flame on top of a Grouse Mountain Skyride gondola.

Strapped in a harness and attached to the gondola with bungee cords, Canadian Olympic snowboarder Justin Lamoureux, 33, took the torch up the mountain.

… the flame was passed to former Olympic skier Kennedy Raine, 38, who brought it down, once again riding on top of the gondola. …

Daring torchbearers take ride on top of Grouse Mountain’s gondola

Funny.

Olympic gold medal gymnast Kyle Shewfelt and comedian Rick Mercer “uncover the top secret science behind Canada’s bid to Own the Podium in Vancouver“.

Click PLAY or watch the TV clip on YouTube.

What is Own the Podium?

… or À nous le podium en 2010! in French, is a Canadian sport technical program launched in January 2005 to prepare Canada to become the top winter sporting nation in the world by 2010 …

This achievement will be measured by whether Canada becomes the top medal-winning nation at the 2010 Olympic Winter Games in Vancouver and Whistler, and places in the top three at the 2010 Paralympics Winter Games. To achieve the goals of 2010, the focus of the program is to provide additional resources and high performance programming to Canadian athletes, coaches and support personnel.

This is a follow up to my first glance review from December.

I spent many afternoons looking through hundreds of video clips. This site has a TON of content. Amazing.

One of my favourite clips is this progression for forward whip on Floor. Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

One more. A great drill to improve sole circle low to high. The clip shows what happens when the girl misses.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

Instead of using elite demonstrators, the performances are realistic to the level of the girls appropriate to each drill. (The clips are not so intimidating when you bring your laptop into the gym and show a drill to your kids.)

Bottom line: GymDrills.com is an excellent new resource for WAG coaches. A good investment for club owners:

• Free per 7 Days (Trial)
• 3.99 USD per 1 Month (Monthly Membership)
• 35.00 USD per 1 Year (Year Membership)

You can now add your own videos to their database.

If members upload 2 approved drills a month or 20 for the year they can get a free membership.

Congratulations to Will Vaughn for putting this together. I’m a fan.

GymDrills.com